The Rolling Stones rely on Clair Global for ’50 & Counting’ gigs

Clair Global was chosen by The Rolling Stones’ production manager Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth to supply audio systems and crew for two huge shows at London’s O2 Arena recently.

FOH engineer Dave Natale – closely associated with Clair for many years – first started working with The Stones in 2005 on their ‘A Bigger Bang’ world tour. He mixed the latest shows on a pair of Yamaha PM4000 analogue consoles, relying on outboard devices such as the Aphex 612 expander gate, Yamaha SPX 990 digital multi FX, Manley EL-OP tube limiter, dbx 903 comp/limiter, Smart C-2 dual mono compressor and Apogee Rosetta 200 AD/DA convertor.

Natale mixed to a PA consisting of main and side hangs of Clair’s flagship i-5 line array with flown i-5b bass modules and P-2 two-way active front fill cabinets. There were further i-5s in a rear hang. The system was set up by Brett Stec using Clair’s proprietary AlignArray software, powered by Crown amplification and processed with Clair iO loudspeaker processors.

Another long-time Clair user, Ed Dracoules, mixed monitors and divided his channels across a primary Midas Heritage 3000 console and an Avid (formerly Digidesign) D-Show Profile – a secondary board added to handle inputs specific to the show’s introduction and encore. Stage monitoring was provided by Clair 12AM wedges, R-4 Series III full-range cabinets, i-5b bass modules and Shure PSM1000 IEM systems.

Outboard for the monitor section included a dbx 160a mono compression, Aphex 622 expander gates, TC Electronic TC1128 28-band graphic EQ and Yamaha SPX 990 effects. Shure UR series wireless systems were also used throughout.

Headed up by Lars Schlapfer, the Clair crew consisted of system engineer Brett Stec; PA technicians Adam Collins, Matt Woolley and Tino Kreischatus; monitor system techs Myles Hale and Don Baker; and stage techs Simon Bauer and Thomas Huntington.

The Rolling Stones followed their 50 & Counting shows at the O2 on November 25th and 29th 2012 with performances in the US at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (December 8th) and the Prudential Center in Newark (December 13th and15th).

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